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THE THOMIST A SPECULATIVE QUARTERLY REVIEW OF THEOLOGY AND PHILOSOPHY EmToRs: THE DoMINICAN FATHERS oF THE PRoVINCE oF ST. JosEPH Publishers: The Thomist Press, Washington 17, D. C. VoL. XVII JANUARY, 1954 No.1 THE INCARNATION: DE LA TAILLE VS. THOMISTIC TRADITION ORE than twenty-five years have elapsed since Pere Maurice de la Taille publicly proposed his fascinating theory on "Created Actuation by Uncreated Act." That teaching met a mixed reaction, but de la Taille's restatement and published defense of it lent it great vigor. The intervening years have seen the influence of this very attractive doctrine increase rather steadily; others having accepted his teaching, applied it in yet further fields, and have judged it most fruitful. One cannot read de la Taille's own exposition of his position without acquiring the conviction that the teacher himself lends acceptability to the teaching. Three qualities mark his work: true profundity, flavored with originality; wide theological 1 THOMAS U. MULLANEY learning; and ease of presentation. These, the qualities of a great teacher, one reverences in de la Taille. Yet a new evaluation of his contribution to theology on this point would seem opportune now. On the one hand, that contribution is well understood, its meaning is clear; on the other hand, aU danger of seeming to discuss a man is over. Today, some ten years after his death, it is possible calmly to evaluate the doctrine with no implication of judging its author. We propose such a reappraisement in these pages. We shall attempt three things: 1) a very brief resume of the teaching on created actuation by Uncreated Act with its application to the light of glory, sanctifying grace and the Hypostatic Union; 2) an appraisal of that doctrine; 3) an indication of its general relevance to Thomistic tradition. This last step is rather necessitated by de la Taille's assurance--even insistence ~that his teaching is traditional Thomism. In brief we hope to establish from this short study that 1) this doctrine of de la Taille denies by implication the distinction between the supernatural and the natural orders; 2) it rests upon a confusion between being and becoming, between formal and efficient causality; and 3) it is therefore inherently unacceptable, and certainly un-Thomistic. We proceed at once, then, to the short resume of de la Taille's teaching, preserving so far as is reasonably possible his own words.1 1 De la Taille's presentation and defense of this theory on created actuation by Uncreated Act is contained in three articles. The first entitled " The Schoolmen," given in English as a paper at the 19'!5 Summer School of Catholic Studies, the University of Cambridge, was published as part of the book, The Incarnation, edited by Rev. C. I.attey, S. J. (Cambridge: W. Heffer & Sons, 1926). The second article entitled " Actuation cree par Acte incree," etc. appeared in Recherches de Science Religieuse, XVIII (1928), 253-268. The third entitled "Entretien amicdi d'Eudoxe et de Palamede sur Ia grace d'union," was published in Revue Apologetique , XLV, HI (1929), 5-26, 129-145. All three papers, the latter two translated into English by Rev. Cyril Vollert, S. J., are now available in a single brochure, The Hypostatic Union and Created Actuation by Uncreated Act, published at West Baden College, West Baden Springs, Indiana. A most sympathetic discussion of de Ia Taille's theory is the article by Rev. Malachi J. Donnelly, S. J., "The Theory of R. P. Maurice de Ia Taille, S. J. on the Hypostatic Union," in Theological Studies, II (1941), 510-526. THE INCARNATION I. CREATED AcTuATION BY UNcREATED AcT: AN ExPOSITION OF DE LA TAILLE's TEACHING.2 1. In General.8 Actuation does not necessarily imply information. Act is the factor in a being which makes it a being of such or such perfection; actuation is the communication of the act to the potency, or correlatively, a reception of that act in the potency. It is a self-donation, a union. Actuation is called information if the act is dependent on the potency; if between act and potency there is mutual causality, mutual dependence. Actuation which is not information is conceivable. If...

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